Input about College List

College Search & Selection
1

I’m kind of cringing at myself for doing this, but I’m not exactly set on my college list and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions/input based on what I have already.
For context, my weighted GPA is 4.1 (don’t know unweighted) and SAT is 1390.
The colleges I am thinking about applying to seem to be mostly reaches or safeties:

Reaches:
Bates
Colorado College (Overnighted here, really liked it. Thinking about this for ED2)
Hamilton
Carleton (Don’t really know much about it, unsure about the location, kind of just added because a counselor kept recommending it to me. If anyone can offer input about this college in relation to the others that would be helpful),
Middlebury (Might remove this?)
Wesleyan (Doesn’t seem to fit with the others, but it was my favorite tour I’ve been on so that definitely swayed me.)

High Matches:
Oberlin (Don’t know much about this either)
Whitman (I think its a match? Not sure.)

Safeties:
UVM (Really like Burlington/vermont in general)
Lewis & Clark
TCNJ (in-state, financial safety)

I was drawn to a lot of these colleges (Bates, CC, Hamilton, Middlebury, UVM, Lewis & Clark) because of the locations/access to the outdoors. I’m also interested in the arts (like studio arts). I am undecided about my major, but I am thinking psychology maybe.
I don’t have a problem being far from home (from NJ) but I’m kind of hesitant about super isolated schools. I don’t care about prestige, but my parents won’t pay for a “lower ranked” college like my safeties unless I can get merit money. I won’t get need-based aid I’m guessing.

Any suggestions about this list? Other colleges that might fit? Anything would be helpful.

2

UVM is in a very attractive location, and has a strong premed program. You probably have a good chance at a presidential merit scholarship there although the NPC would know better than I. TCNJ and Rutgers would also be good choices.

3

Bates: Your standardized scoring places you above its average, perhaps making it less of a reach than the others with which you’ve grouped it. Good offerings in psychology. Active outing club.

Hamilton: Well balanced across academic disciplines. Studio arts facilities should be seen. Access to the Adirondacks.

Colorado College: You liked your overnight. Fits your criteria.

Middlebury: If you know for sure you like Burlington, UVM might actually appeal to you more. You may want to compare both of these schools to Colby for a potential addition.

Whitman: Consider the nearer St. Lawrence as well.

Lewis & Clark: Compare to Reed for an alternative.

Oberlin: If you enjoyed your Wesleyan experience, you might like Oberlin too. Oberlin’s comparatively less selective admissions might help you gain a high-quality acceptance.

Carleton: Perhaps an outlier if you associate outdoor activities with nearby mountains. I’d hesitate to suggest you disregard your counselor, however. Perhaps Kenyon would appeal to you for its studio arts programs and proximity to West Virginia’s Mountains.

I can’t think of too many further choices for you – you seem to have created your list carefully in many ways – but maybe Connecticut College would work. In a different way, Gettysburg could too. If you’re male, Vassar could be less selective than it otherwise appears.

4

Seems like a good list. Skidmore could be another that fits the pattern - great arts, interesting clinical field experience program for psych majors that’s unusual at the undergrad level, nice town and nearby nature. It would be a solid match if you’re male, maybe high-match if you’re female.

Good luck - it seems like you’ve crafted your list well!

5

Btw, regarding the first reply, I don’t think the OP mentioned premed.

6

Denison would be a match with possible merit award, very strong fine arts – gorgeous studio building, Bryant Arts Center – located in central Ohio, with a 350 acre nature reserve, a strong local cycling culture, and 30 minutes from Columbus airport which has good access to east coast airports.

Dickinson also has strong fine arts, also with possible merit (though I believe is capped at around $20k per year). Central PA, about 2 hours to Poconos skiing.

St Lawrence is another match-y school, good fine arts, merit up to about $20k, great outdoor culture (it is basically in the Adirondak mountains). St Lawrence is more remote, in that it is 1 1/2-2 hours to Syracuse and 1 1/2 hours to Montreal, but the small town has the basics for college life – coffee shop/bagels/pizza, farmer’s market, movie theater, and a grocery with large organic selection.

7

Carlton College is in a town with St. Olof College, and offers amazing in studio art and psychology. Just amazing. The school has a great social atmosphere, and
its close enough to get into Minneapolis, with great things to do like concerts, restaurants, bars etc. Its on an intense quarter calendar, and you can take three classes at a time tops. Carlton offers programs abroad for every major,
that are interesting, in places like Australia, New Zealand, London and most European cities, as well as Asian cities.

I cannot say enough good things about Carlton College. Its got some of the best teachers in many fields,
and its very good for interdisciplinary work, and also helps students with med school applications more than other colleges. Its fun, and not pretentious, think broom ball and chocolate chip cookie breaks. Plenty of cross country skiing if you like that, in that part of Minnesota. It attracts a fair number of Chicago students, and other midwestern students, and Colorado students.

Middlebury is more remote than Carlton, but since you like Vermont, try for this top school! . I would say its just A+ for many fields, but you have to want to be in a very cold place, in the middle of no where. Boston is a good deal south. Burlington Vt, just a small town and north of Middlebury. Still its similar in that it has fantastic teachers, very top world language program, with summer intensive languages if that would be of interest.

Oberlin is a music conservatory plus liberal arts. Socially good, but not close enough
to Cleveland to really make the trip. I like it less well than the other two above for academic rigor, if thats what you want. Northern Ohio is not mountainous like Vermont and not as cold as Minnesota. Oberlin is weaker in the sciences, but biology is good. Cleveland has the top orchestra in the USA, besides Chicago. Cleveland Orchestra plays near Case Western Reserve U, and its truly fun to see that, but a trek from Oberlin.

Colorado College offers the one class at a time calendar. Its completely different than your other choices in
that its in a large growing and conservative city, Colorado Springs. Pikes Peak, the Air Force Academy, and high tech flourish in C Springs, along with Focus on the Family and other religious groups. Colorado College is anything BUT conservative, so its an odd location but 300 days of sunshine a year, guarantee that you will be outdoors all winter and having fun. I think its a very creative school, and really stretches students. Downhill skiing is not too far away, but you need a car and lots of other students will have cars. You take a class for three weeks and read hundreds of pages per night to get a degree at Colorado College. You get a lot of breaks so the calendar is very rigorous for workload, only a few schools offer this type of intense one class in three weeks! . You will take the exact number of classes along with all your classmates, eight per year. You cannot take ten, its strictly one class at a time.

8

It is “Carleton”. Just saying because if you apply, they are finicky about wanting it spelled correctly. :slight_smile: But I agree with the comments in post #6 about it. It is very strong academically and quite down to earth (not pretentious). Was on both my kids’ lists - one didn’t get in, and the other did but picked another college (partly because we lived in MN at the time, and she just wanted to be farther away from home).

9

It would be helpful to know what your unweighted GPA is…you can calculate it yourself, using the traditional 4.0 scale, counting core courses only.

It’s difficult to make recommendations using weighted GPA, because there are so many variations…for example, a student with a weighted GPA of 4.1 could have an unweighted GPA anywhere between 3.0 to 4.0, depending on the school, rigor and weighting of courses…college recommendations would obviously be different at the two ends of that range.

10

Seconding Denison.

11

Wow, thanks for all the replies.I calculated my unweighted GPA with only my core classes and it’s about 3.72 cumulative.

12

That might be a little low GPA for Carleton, thanks for spelling correction. But try for it, because it may match your interests well. Go study websites if you cannot get out to Minnesota. I like the healthy midwestern student body.
A nice change from New Jersey maybe. (I am from NJ originally) There are plenty of good choices in Pennsylvania and upstate NY that are closer to home, though if Minnesota feels too far away.

13

Any other recommendations? For some reason my parent says I have to apply to 14 colleges minimum…it was originally 20 but I argued it down. I cant really think of other matches that I would prefer over my safety.
I would prefer places that aren’t super ‘preppy’ but I know those generalizations might not be the best thing to base my choices on.

14

You do not have to comply with that number IF you have a safety.

Its a lot of work to apply to 14 colleges, and how will your narrow that down? Its too many in my opinion. . Are you applying to two safeties and assured of getting into the The College of NJ and any others? Is Rutgers on your list or too big? As long as you are willing to attend The College of NJ, then you do not need 14 schools. If you are unwilling to attend that school, find schools you are willing to attend and use them as safeties.

Ten tops. Tell your parents that the best Manhattan private high schools limit the number of colleges to nine schools.

15

Get advice from your school counselor on safety schools for you, to be sure.

16

would seem you are substantially underplaying TCNJ . It really fits in well with the NESCAC schools you have listed in both atmosphere of campus and academics. Just saying. Our son just graduating got all the opportunity he needed and in fact has ended up with the same internship and full time job offers as friends from above listed schools and even some ives. Just saying.

17

My D applied to 11 schools but we are chasing merit. She has been admitted to an in state option which will work should things not turn out as hoped! Good luck to you! This process is nerve wracking and your parents are probably even more nervous than you!

18

stone3 - TCNJ is probably the school I will end up at if I don’t get into my reaches (or maybe if I do) because it is cheapest and my mom doesn’t think my two other safeties are “strong schools” that are worth the money, even with merit. I know its a good school and I would probably be just as fine there as I would be at any other school on the list. I guess I just have always had a bias against it because I really don’t want to stay in NJ/near my home. I realize that’s kind of petty, though.